Tuesday, February 4th, Queensrÿche played Portland’s iconic Crystal Ballroom in support of their 2019 album, The Verdict with guests John 5 and Eve to Adam providing the opening festivities. The audience, a 21 and older collection of Portland’s metal faithful gathered early in the historic performance venue, sipping drinks and sharing stories.
When Eve to Adam went on stage, the crowd pushed toward the barricade to take a listen. It took a minute for Portlanders to shake off the cold, but by the time Eve to Adam played their popular bass-line driven track “Straitjacket Supermodel”, the audience had clearly found their groove. But that groove was about to be taken to a whole new plane.
John 5 menacingly sauntered onto the stage and began to shred. It wasn’t “Monster Energy in your veins” for the entirety of his time on stage though. John 5, instead, demonstrated his mastery of the guitar. Throughout his set, he went through many different styles of guitar playing. One example that stands out, for example, was “Howdy” from his 2019 album, Invasion. No distortion, few effects, just “chicken pickin'” at a pace that would make mere mortals shrivel. By contrast, “Crank It” off that same album had a great groove metal feel that really got the crowd twisting their heads in rhythm with the face-painted guitarist. To finish off his set, John 5 delivered an epic medley, delivering songs by Rush, Van Halen, Soundgarden, Marilyn Manson, The Police, The Knack, Megadeth and more. Of course, no John 5 medley would be complete without that crunchy riff from Zombie’s “Thunderkiss ’65.”
Queensrÿche took the stage and the whole room went wild. In sharp contrast to the nearly vocal-less performance from John 5, Queensrÿche and lead singer Todd La Torre passionately demonstrated that crushing vocals are an integral part of what has made Queensrÿche such a successful band over these last 40 years. The band played deep cuts from the early years of Queensrÿche to newer tracks off their 2019 album titled The Verdict. Visually, the stage setup was pretty clean. Four LED panels adorned the stage and round LED panels on the double bass drums displayed imagery throughout the set. When “Silent Lucidity” was played, hoardes of people moved past me, cell phones outstretched, trying to record the moment for future playback and potentially online stardom.
During the set, Todd polled the crowd to see who had never seen Queensrÿche before. From where I was standing, it looked like nearly half the crowd, myself included, had never witnessed Queensrÿche live. It was an incredible show. I’m just sorry it took me forty years to see for myself.
